Data compression techniques have been developed over the last several decades to reduce the large bandwidth needed by transmission of media (audio, video, or multimedia) data. One side effect of data compression is that the compressed media data is sensitive to data loss or noise, which can happen in best-effort networks. In some cases, loss of a few bits can cause an entire packet to be unrecognizable. As end user devices and network environments become more diversified, reliable media data transmission over noisy networks becomes more challenging.
To reduce data loss in media transmission over noisy networks, various techniques have been developed, such as Forward Error Correction (FEC), Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ), and Packet Loss Concealment (PLC). For example, multiple description coding (MDC) can be used for error-resilient media transmission.